Category: Top Dog

I have a 5 year old poodle, and he is aggressive to both humans and other dogs. I live in an apartment, and he barks at the door whenever he hears someone outside. He can’t get along with other dogs; he lunges at them and tries to fight them. He doesn’t even get along with me. He bites and growls at me all the time, and he scratches my door constantly. The only time he seems behaved is when food is involved, but even then he will try to steal food from me. How can I change this behaviour?

This greyhound beauty just came off the track. It’s a boy. Right now his name is Viper. We would like to have a good name for him, maybe something softer. Also, maybe something associated with Christmas since he’s coming to his new home on Christmas Eve.What recommendations do you all have?

Hey everyone, ive been thinking about getting a puppy for a while now. So I could have a little companion so I’m not fully alone, but I really didn’t want a really young puppy, i get too worried for really young ones, so I preferably wanted one around 4-6 months old, but I was worried if it would develop separation anxiety, I don’t want to distress it or make my pet sad or upset, it hurts me to hear puppies whine and howl when they’re alone (I experienced this when I was at my bfs house) it makes me sad so I want to avoid it

We rescued a dog around 3 weeks ago, overall he’s a saint. He listens, sometimes less when distracted, but nothing that we can’t fix. Is comfortable staying alone, doesn’t go nuts in the home, is friendly with all dogs, but… he chases all cats he sees, barking and behaving so differently I’m losing hoping that we can train it out of him.

He’s 2 years old, lived 1 year in a crate and 1 year on a farm from which he was kicked out after smothering 7 chickens. He’s a mixed breed, not castrated yet, medium sized and loves to smell everything around, he seriously sticks his nose deep and can spend even 30 seconds smelling 1 spot. Which I guess might be some hunting behaviours?

Is it even possible at all to train the dog not to react to cats at all? Right now he’s going completely out of control only on this aspect

hi all! we are first time dog owners and recently (6 days ago) adopted a korean rescue dog. he was with a foster in korea for a few months prior to being flown here, and that foster described him as exceedingly independent, not craving human touch, and able to be alone in a crate or outside of a crate for several hours at a time.

when we brought him home, we decided to make his “safe space” our bedroom, because it had the least wires on the floor and was the easiest to close off. we put a crate in the the bedroom. when he arrived, i let him sniff around a bit, and he immediately gravitated towards our bed. we don’t mind having him on the bed, so we let him on, but now he is extremely attached to it. he can only be truly calm when he’s there, and the real issue is that he needs us to be on the bed with him in order to calm down. he appears to be very fearful of the crate. we are working from home for the next few weeks, and so are around, but we can’t clean the house or use the kitchen without him freaking out. by “freaking out” i mean he begins to shake and pant very intensely. he doesn’t really have “accidents” or do anything destructive.

we’ve started sort of “pushing through the pain,” which is to say, we’ve been using the other rooms in the house for 5mins-1 hour at a time. because he’s not doing anything destructive, this hasn’t resulted in anything bad happening to the house, but we’re sort of accepting the panting and the shaking as a necessary effect of this approach. are we pushing him too hard? should we continue this approach? any advice would be welcome!

I have an 8 month old dog who I have never once let on the couch. He knew to calmly sit on the floor next to me if he wanted attention, and that even putting his paws on the couch meant he would be getting completely ignored. He’s been perfect at this since he understood the rules months ago.

But my issues began when my roommate let his friend crash at our house. He knew the rules about the dog, but he let him jump up on the couch anyway. And now all my couch training has been ruined. He just jumps onto the couch whenever he wants, and idk how to stop him. I don’t do any negative reinforcement beyond ignoring him when he’s misbehaving. But he likes lying on the couch more than he dislikes me ignoring him.

What can I do to stop this behavior? I wouldn’t personally mind him hanging on the couch, but he’s a big dog and all that jumping up and down will wear on his hips eventually. And that’s what I’m trying to prevent

I have a little bit of an odd issue. How do I train my dog to go the bathroom outside my yard?

She's about 18 months old golden retriever female and I have a really hard time to get her to go to the bathroom outside our yard and it's starting to create some issues.

I was taking her for some good walks during the spring through fall, but I live in a cold climate so we've been trying to find a nice middle ground for walks (I get hives from the cold and she HATES the cold). We were doing about 2 miles a night for 6 months and in all that time she peed once outside the yard and the entire time she looked like she thought she was going to be in trouble. I praised her and gave her treats and made a huge deal out of it because it had been something I was trying to get her to do. I thought it was a break through but it was literally the only time it happened. I even took walks with friends and their dogs specifically so she could see the behavior modeled for her. No luck. I took her on a road trip to a concert when she was about 4 months old, she refused to go potty, held her pee for the first 24 hours and refused to poo until day three. She just won't do it.

We went to my aunts cabin in the woods for thanksgiving and she drank two bowls of water and had some extra treats for the holiday but when I let her out to go potty she would go to the car and tap it in an insistent way like "I want to go home". Eventually we left and when we got home it was literally the first thing she did. We're going back for Christmas and I just need some advice on getting my dog to go potty in the woods. Or right off the deck, I don't care, I just would like her to do it so I can praise her and maybe get her used to the idea of it.

She never goes potty in the house, not since she was tiny. She potty trained in about a week of us getting her and she's so good about going in the yard.

I have a gorgeous 11 week old border collie X poodle.

She's been great, practically potty trained herself, she's eager to listen and learn. She still has her crazy shark attack moments, of course!

I also have an autistic 3 year old, so it's really important she learns good manners around him. He can be easily overstimulated by jumping, nipping and barking.

she will also need to be familiar with how his body language is different from your average humans, and that his behaviours can often be confusing and loud.

His pretty great with animals when his regulated, often better than other toddlers his age. Plus I'm very used to knowing when he isn't regulated and when he shouldn't be trusted to be gentle with others.

The problem is he hasn't been around many animals that are so enthusiastically motivated to play with him. We have chickens and cats, who are extremely tolerant of him, but his able to initiate all of these interactions himself on the most part. When his not in the mood they leave him alone. The puppy on the other hand tries very hard to play with him, and his just not interested in that kind of play.

If she gets too pushy with him and she isn't respecting that his pushing her away, he'll hug her close or try to run away, which obviously isn't great for her training/socialisation. I don't want her to become frightened of children grabbing her. His learning to say 'help' or 'I don't like it', then waiting for me to intervene.

Of course I'm always close by when they interact and any incorrect handling is immediately addressed by me.

At the moment I'm mostly keeping her on a leash when they are in the same spaces, so she can't get any access to him in the first place. He loves running with her, playing tug of war and playing with water/sand together, and I can control the distance between them with the leash so they aren't able to touch.

Does anyone have any good suggestions of helpful commands/behaviours to teach pup to let our toddler initiate any interactions, and to prevent behaviours that trigger his sensory sensitivities when near him? Should I just focus on 'leave it', and avoid touch between them until she's older and has more self control?

I'm also trying to book with local trainers who have experience with assistance dogs to support me in this ☺️

Hello, I have a 3 year old male bully and have been watching my friends 5 year old female lab for about a week now. Today we were in the back yard and the lab is usually really calm but got excited and started mounting my bully. I was about 15 feet away in the yard and was going over to correct her but my bully got fed up after a few seconds and corrected her but didn’t stop. I had to pull him away from her as he was trying to get her and now I have them separated. No broken skin or anything and I know it’s in their nature to not really stop once they get started but is there anything I can do to teach him a correction is not supposed to be an attack? Or is there anything else I should do with him?

I have had dogs my entire life. My (deceased) older brother was a dog trainer, and I have successfully potty- and leash-trained all of the dogs I’ve had since childhood. I’ve had: Airedale, Schipperke, English Lab, Pomeranian, Beagle, German Shepherd, Chihuahua and a few mixed breeds (Shepherd x Beagle, Poodle x Maltese, etc.) All shapes and sizes.

I am at a loss with Gina.

I have two female puppies: Gina, a 10-month-old mix, and Kaycee, a 5-month-old chihuahua.

1. Gina, my 10-month-old mix (“super mutt” including terrier, Husky, Pom, GSD, Boxer, etc.) is about 18 lbs and super smart with many things. Unfortunately, potty training isn’t one of them. ⁃ She will not go on leash. Ever. Not even during long walks (30-60 min) right after eating. ⁃ Now, it’s winter. She HATES the cold and will not engage/walk outside. ⁃ She also hates the rain. ⁃ She will go outside first thing in the morning IF I take her into our (fully fenced) yard and stay with her while she sniffs and goes both. This takes anywhere from 5 minutes to 15 minutes. Easy peasy. Except that is the only time she will potty outside except for random times. I have tried standing out there in the rain, the cold, etc. Nothing, just like leash walking, except for the occasional random triumph. I use verbal cues. They only work in the morning. ⁃ House: She never goes in a random spot. She always goes by the front door/fireplace, and I have always put pads down since I work (mostly from a home office but am on conference calls all day), and I wanted to make sure they didn’t ruin the floor if not with me since she was going there at three months old. She was also supposed to be chihuahua-sized…but nope lol. ⁃ I have two (teen/adult) boys who live with me. Both dogs sleep with them. I intercept Gina first thing in the morning to go potty outside. They walk her all the time and she never “goes” for them, either. ⁃ We have an open floor plan and cannot block off the living room. 

I am having company for Christmas, and there are decorations on either side of the fireplace, with pads in the middle.

I am fed up and just moved the pads to the back door this morning. I brought her there and said “NO pee pee poop” in the front, and said “good girl” by the back and let her sniff. I am soaking the front area with dog enzymatic solution.

What else can I do?? I know this is my fault for allowing this to continue, but every time I tried to move them and take her out 15 times a day, she wouldn’t go outside and still snuck over there at her first moment of freedom to go by the door.